Morning before Hell

The Redlands criterium yesterday was uneventful. I worked my way up to the front part of the peloton by mid-race, just in time to watch Sheldon make an attack off the front sporting the U25 Devo "plain red" jersey. For the next 40 minutes, Sheldon and I tag teamed to stay near the front of the bunch while Rock Racing set tempo to keep the 4-rider breakaway in check.

With 20 minutes to go, Toyota and Kelly Benefit started to chase hard and the going got tough. With three corners more than 100 degrees, the single file peloton split right behind my position in the field. Luckily, Sheldon, Phil, and I all made the split. The pace was super high all the way until the finish. I got gapped on the last lap with 6 corners to go, and the race officials gave me a nice time gap because of it. Whatever, it was my fault for not being in the top 50 as the split happened.

So going into today's Sunset Road Race, U25 Devo is the 2nd amateur team on GC behind Cal-Giant Strawberries. Considering we only had 5 riders to begin with, so far so good!

12 laps of climbing hell begin in about 4 hours. The Sunset Road Race is widely regarded as one of the hardest road race stages in USA racing. I'm looking to finish--last year, only 30 riders made it.

-b-